IT'S a date in your diary not to miss – the annual Bridport Hat Festival, and the Electric Palace want to see it start in style with a star-studded night with Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys.

Performing on September 2 at 8pm at the Electric Palace, the hard core country musicians include B. J. Cole, a leading artist on the pedal steel guitar.

An authentic country singer/songwriter with a wide emotional range, country music's 'King of Pain' is renowned on both sides of the Atlantic for his originality and lasting career on the country music scene.

Hank has picked at the miserable underbelly of country music for twenty eight years, inspiring others like Billy Bragg, The The, The Alabama Three and other alternative country musicians.

He has spread the word with his two ground breaking television series, Britain’s first on Country music, Big Big Country and The A to Z of C&W and his books Lost Cowboys and Hank Wangford Vol 3 The Middle Years.

Through the '90s Hank has done several radio series for the BBC: Nine Pound Hammer - the history of railroad songs in the USA, Ghengiz Khan was a Cowboy Too tracing the development of Country & Western music from its Mongolian roots and journey West; Way Out West about Galway and Connemara, his new-found spiritual home.

Hank continues to tour extensively both with the Lost Cowboys and as a duo with Reg Meuross touring village halls on the Rural Arts Scheme.

The night is themed for a celebratory party at the Palace.

An organiser of the night said: "The dress-up is just as important as the get down, so pick a decade and dress glamorously."

n Bridport Hat Festival Launch Party with Hank Wangford & The Lost Cowboys at Bridport Electric Palace on September 2 at 8pm. Tickets cost £15 on the door.

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